TOM FORD was delighted after an excellent 10-8 win over former World Championship finalist Matthew Stevens at Ponds Forge to take him back to the Crucible.
He was slightly less pleased while somewhere past Junction 29 on the M1 heading back to Leicester to receive a call asking him to turn around and go back to Sheffield for some TV work.
The BBC were filming all 32 players solemnly walking towards the camera and folding their arms in the style often used by football, rugby and rugby league for use during the 17-day event.
But with many matches finishing at the same time and various media commitments Ford left the building as the only man not ticked off, with the top 16 having done the filming at the Masters.
With so little time to complete the set before the Saturday kick-off there was no option but to ask Ford to come back.
But there is nothing like a win taking you to snooker’s Mecca to engender some general bonhomie and Ford obliged the request, deciding he would rather do it late on Tuesday and enjoy his day off Wednesday before the first-round draw.